The Evil Last Cookie

this guest post provided by:Josie @ www.yumyucky.com

I didn't eat the first one or any in between, but oh no, it's the Last Cookie. The package was opened and closed, opened and closed, and now this is all that remains. Last Cookie is partially crumbled, most likely stale, and was touched by grimy kids' hands. Maybe dropped on the floor and put back?

I don't have a clue about Last Cookie's history, but it's calling me at a vulnerable time. I've got those after work hunger pangs and dinner isn't brewing yet.

I opened the package and stared at last cookie with the intention to talk myself down. Yes, I know all about eating small meals throughout the day, trading in empty calorie crap for fibrous fruit, and posing as a Water Gulping contestant; all in an effort to prevent this situation. But these techniques have no power over Last Cookie. Why can't Last Carrot or Last Yogurt have the same grip over me?

I analyzed this atrocity and had a profound revelation. The woo-ing effect of Last Cookie is a bunch of crap. It's a mirage that tells lies. Take a bite (because that's what I did) and it's not even good. It's nasty and stale because it's Last Cookie.

I need to get a grip. And so I will.
I need to stop buying Oreos. And so I might.

Josie has a witty blog full of great little nuggets of wisdom and fun, I always get a smile, a chortle, a laugh when I check out her blog - please do the same
http://www.yumyucky.com - thanks Josie! - natalie

Don't Let Your Guard Down

First of all, I want to thank Natalie for entrusting her audience to me for a day. I am honored and I truly appreciate it.

I have been blogging about my weight loss and fitness for over fifteen months now. During that fifteen months I have seen a lot. I have made new friends. I have read great stories. I have seen successes, and and I have seen failures. It's those successes and failures I want to tell about today.

I wondered from the beginning what separated those who succeed from those who fail. What is the difference? Early on in my weight loss journaling I made a couple of friends, both on a weight loss forum. We encouraged each other daily. It wasn't long until one disappeared. I wrote her a personal email, and she assured me that she just needed some time away from the stress of dieting. I haven't seen her since. The other fellow kept up with his program for a while. In fact, there was quite a long time that he was somewhat of my inspiration because I didn't want to see him succeed and me fail. Unfortunately, about June of this year he began to slip. Now he is no longer anywhere to be seen. Despite my personal emails to him, he cannot seem to get back on track. What happened here?

Many of us talk from week-to-week about falling off the wagon, binging, or blowing it. Many of us do this from time-to-time. I used to think that these one meal or one day indiscretions were potentially fatal to us. As I have matured some in my thinking, I realize that we can generally get through a mess up somewhat unscathed. The problem lies when messing up becomes our habit. That, my friends, is where I have seen many a dieter lose their ability to stick with it.

Sometimes this happens innocently enough. In fact, I can think of two examples off of the top of my head that happened lately. Two people I have been following for some time who took a week off for a vacation. Did they go hog wild? No. They just took a little time away, letting their guard down just a bit. They were both strong in their resolve, so there was no doubt they would come back from their vacation and get right back at it. Unfortunately, in both cases they found this much harder than they expected. While both seem to be back on track right now, I don't believe either one will tell you that it was easy.

The point of all this is that many of us need to realize what we are up against. We are fighting for our lives, in many cases literally. Most of us have had a number of years of very unhealthy living, and some of us have been doing it a lifetime. Those habits can remain there for the rest of our lives. Granted, while we are succeeding, they are dormant, but the moment we give them a crack to get through, they are back in our lives in full force. That means we have to remain diligent, even when we let our guards down in other areas of our lives. If we don't, we create an opportunity for those old habits to slip back in. If they do slip back in, they are much harder to break the second time around.

So what do we need to take away from this? First of all, even when we are taking some needed time away, we need to be sure and stick to some form of our program: some exercise and some restraint on what we eat. That way we are still following those habits that have brought us success thus far. If we take a cheat meal, we need to just make it one meal and get right back on track. Don't let the cheat meal turn into a cheat day, which then turns into a cheat week. Last of all, if you start feeling like you may have lost your stride, continue to surround yourself with those who are succeeding. You will garner strength from that. Strength that you need. Strength that we all need.

you can find steve's inspirational story at

Big changes start small

since I am currently playing in Disneyland with my awesome hubby and 3 kids - here is Diane from http://www.fittothefinish.com/blog/ to come and guest post for me... she's always informative and ever encouraging - thanks diane

From the time I was small I always had some goal or achievement I was striving for. Whether it was being the class monitor in grade school, or winning a prize in high school, I was always trying to better myself. I didn’t always succeed in meeting my goals, but I always tried. Even as I got fatter and fatter, I still had many goals for myself. I wanted a large family. I wanted a good marriage. I wanted to be more commited to my faith. I wanted my family to not worry about material things. But in addition to all those family and faith related goals, I had one overriding goal: I wanted to lose weight! And believe me I did try.


As time marched on and the scale inched up, I continually set weight goals for myself. “Okay,” I’d tell myself. “I’ll lose 5 pounds this week, 4 pounds the next week and by Easter I’ll be down to 270.” When Easter rolled around and I hadn’t lost an ounce, I’d reset the finish date for the 10 pound weight loss in my head. “Okay, now I’ll weigh 270 by Mother’s Day,” I’d reassure myself. No matter what time of year it was, I always had a specific goal floating around in my head with regards to weight loss, but I never could seem to reach even the first week’s goal. Surprisingly, after ten years of never reaching the first weight loss goal I had set for myself, I still didn’t give up.

I think it is very important to set goals for yourself in every area of your life. When you aim for nothing that’s probably what you will get. What’s the best way to set goals for yourself with regards to your weight? Well, I was pretty unrealistic during my obese years as to how much weight I could actually lose during a given period of time. I just hoped that I could lose “x” number of pounds, but didn’t stop to examine whether that was an appropriate amount of weight to lose, or if it was even possible. When I finally developed my weight loss strategy, (www.fittothefinish.com) I acknowledged to myself that I had to set some realistic goals. No, I wouldn’t be able to lose 50 pounds in one month. No, I wouldn’t be running in the 5K for charity in two months.

Goal setting for me became less specific about pounds lost during a period of time, and more about handling specific situations. You see, when I stopped being obsessed by the scale, and started focusing on bad habits and behaviors I had developed, I started having success. The actual weight on the scale was still very important to me, as that was my first tangible measurement I could see change. But other goals became important as well. Here are some examples of goals I wrote down for myself as I was starting to lose weight:

- Stop buying chocolate
- Don’t eat after dinner
- Walk 5 times a week
- Stop going through drive-thru restaurants
- Eat only one portion of a food at a time (ie: not the whole box of crackers, even if they were low-fat)
- Weigh every day
- Enjoy the food I was eating instead of inhaling it so fast I forgot what it tasted like in two seconds and had to have more to make sure I liked it

These were just some of the goals I set for myself that weren’t all about the number on the scale. Because I had some goals that weren’t just about pounds lost, I saw success on an hourly and on a daily basis. Even when my weight loss wasn’t quick, I could always look back at my list and know that I was slowly conquering my obsession with food in a healthy, practical way. Are there goals beyond the scale that you have set for yourself? If not, I’d encourage you to really think about your life goals. Be specific about your goals, and before long you will be succesful! Diane